DESIDANCETEAMS.COM

I've never heard of this show yet but that SUCKS and seems unfair!

Ahhh, I'm not a big fan and don't understand why competitions keep doing this. Even though it may have actually been done randomly, it still makes you loose credibility with teams. To me it just makes sense to finalize the show order at a mixer. One of the best formats I've seen was at BA in Boston (2 years ago) during the mixer. All the teams competed amongst each other to see who gets the most points through a dance battle and other games/activities. The team with the highest score then got to choose a picture of a famous Bollywood actor/actress. Behind that picture, there was a number....that number would be your place in the show (hence, even if your team had the most points, you could have drawn 1 and opened the show). I found this to be a great way to determine a show line up b/c it was truly unbiased and no team could argue b/c it was fair. I really think competitions should model after this...do something (games, dance battle, etc...) to engage in friendly competition but don't let that solely determine the order b/c some teams have an edge over others depending on the mixer activity.

It's not fair but a lot of competitions (Phillyfest, BA, BOB, etc) do it for a few reasons:

-They believe the "better" teams belong in the 2nd half of the show
-Home teams often (not always) will be in the 2nd half of the show. Competition organizers go on the premise that a large portion of the audience is made up of hometown teams's fans, and if they perform too early in the show, a lot of the audience will leave and not stay for the other teams.
-There's not much time btwn teams performances, probably 5-7 minutes of an MC speaking and an intro video playing. A lot of time, a team's use of props or their overall set up may not allow for them to be ready for their own performance OR take everything apart and get off stage for the next team to come on, within that time frame. It's safer for them to put these teams right before intermission or at the end of the show to risk complaints from the next team getting on stage or disrupting the flow of the show.

PearlyWhites, if you believe that BA 2 years ago was a random lineup, you've got to be kidding. Everyone at that mixer knew it was set up to look like it was random. Everyone realized by the end of the show the next day that Wanted Ashiqz had to go last because of the special rigging they had to do for their lead, Ashif. They could not have gone anywhere else in the show except last or last before intermission. Think about it - the pictures were picked by teams and then the teams reshuffled. it was all a bit strange. Same with a team like BSB - Phillyfest this year, they went last before intermission, and at SAS, last in the show because of their large lights, platform, etc. It would be too difficult to dismantle in a short amount of time. Would be interesting to see them placed elsewhere in the show order. In BA's defense, theyre not the only competition to do this, it's been done before because competition organizers would rather go through the effort of having to create an illusion of having a random order than deal with complaints from teams and deal with the criticism.

Food for thought anyway, but tell me when was the last time you all saw someone stand in front of you with a hat and had captains simply pick names out, no gimmicks. For competitions that do this, kudos for integrity; for others, take note.

The more transparency in competitions, the better.

As a member of one of the teams, I was a little surprised that we first heard about show order on a DDT post, but I think it shouldn't end up being too big of a deal. Since this competition has three separate competing categories, that should help even things out.

Assuming intermission is after the 5th or 6th act, you're going to have bhangra, fusion, and film teams in each half of the show. And since the category specific judges will be focused on their acts, the fact that they are generally spaced out should make that easier for them. It may end up influencing overall winners, but no one can say for sure (SLU Raas just got 1st place at Raas Royalty from 1st show order).

There is also the added benefit that we do get to know the order well in advance, which allows us to plan ahead for teams we want to watch (for example, as a Wash U team, I'm thrilled that we will get to see Chaahat rip it).

Regardless, can't wait for competition!

[size=150]Film- Every year i think Anubhav is gonna get better but they have been disappointing me lately. Also they don't seem to bring their best show when it comes to some of these smaller midwestern competitions (ex Srujan last year). Costume problems from phillyfest should be fixed by now. I think they'll get it done this weekend, but we dont know what to expect from nazaara or how WashU will preform with new choreos this year who grew up in the shadow of the great UCI teams from a few years ago.

Fusion- Dhamaal has to be the favorites, despite the dancers they may have lost from the apparent feud that resulted in forming Nazaara. ABDC sounds like it could be a lot of fun to watch. The WashU Masti lead from last year looked good at BB and now he's on this team. Buckeye fusion has been competing around the midwest for a few years but its unclear as to whether they know what it takes to win; they really should borrow some of that "wow" factor from OSU genesis. I'm not sure what to expect out of NW.

Bhangra- not a clue

Overall- Its Anubhav's show to lose. [/size]

show order issue- if true, its absolutely [color=#BF0040][b]ridiculous [/b][/color]that the teams first learned about the show order from a DDT post as rep stl suggested earlier.

[quote]Food for thought anyway, but tell me when was the last time you all saw someone stand in front of you with a hat and had captains simply pick names out, no gimmicks. For competitions that do this, kudos for integrity; for others, take note.[/quote]

I actually attended SAS when it was first held 2 years ago and I remember that during the mixer, they had a competition with all the teams where they had to dress their liaisons up with the items that were provided. Then, they had to have the liaisons model off what the teams prepared. To determine the order of who goes first, second, third, and etc, they had team captains come up, pick a number out of the hat, and that number would be associated with a song and when the liaisons would go up. The whole object was to have the best dressed liaison. Whoever had the best dressed liaison was told that they would get to choose when they wanted to go in the show. The 2nd best gets to choose next....and so on and so forth. After the little competition was over, they were told that that's not how the show order was going to be picked. Instead, the number that was drawn from the hat was when the teams go in the line-up. The whole point of this is that, there are competitions that still do that. Again, this was 2 years ago. Not sure how SAS did it this year. But i always question the integrity of competitions when they choose show orders. But in the end, we have no control over what these competition organizers do. You just gotta go with the flow.

DAMNN GAME TIME!! Even if this isn't a bid comp, it's going to be so legit still..

Category winners:

Bollywood - UIC Nazaara/NU Anubhav

Fusion - Chicago (UIC) Dhamaal...easy as that

Bhangra - Northwestern Bhangra - guys were good last two years at Nachte, let's see if you can beat out Purdue/GW

--Basically Illinois is about to rape the competition hear.

As a first year team, Nazaara has been sincerely very impressive. Dhamaal's been winning some small local comps so should be interesting to see the two teams battle it out for the overall winner. Northwestern Anubhav never disappoints either...

Overall winner: Nazaara/Dhamaal

The way SAS did it this year was a competition of musical chairs to determine category order and karaoke routine to determine show order.

I'm not a big fan of this way but I do find it better than a predetermined show order.

theres indians in wisconsin?? whaaaaat

1. Anubhav
2. UIC Dhamaal
3. Purdue Di Shaan
4. ABDC
5. Buckeye fusion
6. UIC Nazaara
7. Jawani
8. Northwestern Deeva Troupe
9. UW Chahaat
10. NW Bhangra


Winners:

Fusion: Deeva
Bhangra: NW Bhangra
Filmy: Chahaat

Congrats to all teams!

(last three teams who went placed....stinks that the show "randomly" selected this order weeks before the show....)

Congrats Deeva! it was a pleasure working with you guys i cant wait to see the vid

Congrats to all the teams that placed. I heard there was a mess up during the awards.. haha funny shit. Anyone got reviews & videos?

Last three teams that went placed?

Sounds like Raas all stars the last two years.
Hope to get some reviews.

Thought I'd post some quick thoughts:

-Competition started relatively on time, though the auditorium was pretty empty which was sad for the first few teams that went up
-The Overture Center is one beautiful auditorium
-The MC skits were pretty awful and it was sometimes hard to hear what was going on

Here are some thoughts on the best teams and winners of the night:
-Anubhuv: WOW. Literally wow'ed by this dance. I felt that this team had it all... strong intro, great choreography and storyline, great leads, stunts, gimmicks, and high energy. The crowd was going crazy for this team and great way to start the show. I am sad that this team went first and my friends and other audience members were shocked that they didn't win Bollywood or overall. I wish you guys luck in the future... you turly deserved this win.

-Dhamaal: I do not remember a whole lot about your dance, but I do remember you guys have AMAZING energy. Some of synchronization was sloppy at parts so I think you could work on that to really pull the dance together.

-Jawani: Great dance. You had by far the nicest costumes of the bhangra teams, good clean choreo and good formation changes. The crowd went crazy during your last formation change sequence.. good stuff. I would have liked to see higher energy during some parts, but overall I enjoyed the dance. We were excited when we thought you won, but apparently the organizers messed up somehow. I think you guys deserved the win in this category.

-Deeva: Very good dance with an Alice in Wonderland. Its hard to be an all-female fusion team and still keep the audience interested. You had sections of choreography that were really wow, but other parts that brought the energy down a bit (like your Bollywood choreography). I think you guys earned the clear win in your category. The other two fusion teams really need work, but don’t let that take away from your win!

-Chahaat: Interesting “Planet Bollywood” themed dance with very few dancers. You have strong and talented male dancers that really kept the dance going. The male choreo was good at parts as well and overall the guys had good energy. I would work on all of your female choreography – the moves were simple and very uncoordinated. Congrats on your win.

-NW Bhangra: Great intro with a male singing the song. I always love gimmicks like that – really got the crowd going. Overall you had nice costumes, good energy and nice use of props. You have some really strong dancers, and some that I think need some work on synchonization energy. I liked your dance overall!

Overall: The only correct placement in my opinion was Deeva’s fusion win. Its hard to swallow that the last 3 teams in the show order won, and I have a feeling this was a case of judges who just remembered the last 3 dances and gave them the win. My friends and I are all former dancers and agreed that Anubhuv had BY FAR the best dance of the night. Honestly I believe that Deeva had a superior dance to Chaahat too, so it truly surprises me that all of these judges gave Chaahat the overall. I also really thought Jawani deserved the Bhangra win, and on top of that there was a mess-up and they thought they won…. I felt so terible for them when they backed up and watched another team actually get called for the win. Overall it was an alright competition, but I think Aa Dekhe Zara needs to work on finding better judges. Would really like to see some vids posted so can see how the judging was totally off!

hey all,

i know that this is technically the fusion forum, but it seems like the ADZ conversation is going on here so this is where i thought we'd post our video from this weekend.

this was jawani's first true bhangra competition, so it was a great experience for the team just to see the go through the whole process and have as much as we did over the course of the weekend. i thought the venue itself was beautiful as people mentioned, but also like others mentioned i think that the competition is still developing in terms of basic logistics and understanding what it takes to develop the best experience possible. things like the after party and providing sufficient practice space are just essential to having a good time, but big props to the attending teams who took matters into their own hands and put together their own party overall, definitely a competition to keep an eye out for next year because it was still a very positive experience.

i only got to speak to one of the judges, who was the overall judge for the competition (the other two judges for bhangra were strictly bhangra judges). i think it was definitely a close call for this competition and that's due to a very solid performance by NW Bhangra (big ups to captains Ajay and Pavan), and based on this particular rubric and the feedback i got i don't have a problem with the placings. we as a team try to focus only on giving enjoyable performances and that's it, and i hope everyone enjoys the video.

Below is the link to our video, any feedback or comments are always appreciated.

Enjoy,
Arnab
Co-captain, GU Jawani

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ48NTVlE9Y